March 13, 2011: It rained this afternoon, and here's a very short clip of a Mourning Dove in my Elizabeth Magnolia. The rain was easing up when I was recording. But it took me a while to focus and use this new camera. So I got very wet. (I can't hold a camera and umbrella at the same time.) The sound you hear is our creek.

Quite a few decades ago -- in 1957 -- Evamaria Sperber planted a newly hybridized seed in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.As it was seed-grown she waited long years for the first flowers which came only in 1972. But they were truly a success. So she observed the plant's performance and 5 years later she had it patented (US PP4145), naming it in honour of the director and benefactor of the Garden, Elizabeth van Brunt. It is a cross between magnolia acuminata and magnolia denudata.